Man drove 50 miles to watch planes take off
POLICE FOUND AIRCRAFT SPOTTER AT FENCE DURING PERIMETER PATROL
A PLANE spotter has been fined for travelling 50 miles from Rotherham to East Midlands Airport.
The aviation enthusiast was caught breaking Covid regulations by East Midlands Airport Police while watching planes taking off and landing at the Castle Donington airport.
He was discovered during one of the police’s perimeter patrols at the airport.
Officers have warned that anyone found at any of the airport perimeter gates will be questioned as to why they are there.
A spokesman for the team said the Covid ticket was issued to the plane spotter who had travelled 50 miles from Rother
ham, near Sheffield, in what was described as a non-essential journey.
A spokesman said: “A reminder that your presence at East Midlands Airport must be for essential reasons only.
“Observing or photographing aircraft, or attending the crash gates to ‘kill time’ is not deemed
an essential activity. Perimeter patrols occur both day and night as part of our patrol strategy.
“If you are found at any of the airport perimeter gates you may be asked to account for being there.”
It comes after couple who travelled 13 miles to watch planes at the airport were fined for breaking lockdown rules – and prompted an emotional plea from a police officer whose hospital worker wife cries as she has to watch people die from Covid.
The plea was filmed on police bodycam, which showed the unnamed officer from Leicestershire Police approach the couple during a routine patrol on January 21.
While issuing the pair with a fine, he tells them his wife who works at a hospital has been “in tears for two weeks because she honestly cannot watch people die any more.”
For breaking Covid rules, people can be fined £200 for the first offence, £400 for the second offence, then doubling for each further offence up to a maximum of £6,400.